Investigators probed signature-gathering effort

Previously unreleased sections of search warrant documents in
the investigation into an unsuccessful recall campaign targeting a
Lake Elsinore city councilman show detectives were interested in
the campaign's signature-gathering effort.

The redacted portions of documents presented to a Superior Court
judge in early February were unsealed by the court Friday in
response to a media request.

Thomas Buckley, the councilman targeted by the recall
proponents, alleged the campaigners hired professional consultant
John Burkett of Wildomar to orchestrate signature-gathering and was
using out-of-town petition circulators in the drive to get enough
signatures of registered Lake Elsinore voters to require an
election.

The campaign alleged Buckley was corrupt, although authorities
have never charged him with wrongdoing of that sort. Buckley
contended he was being targeted by Lake Elsinore entertainment
complex owner Michel Knight because of the councilman's votes
against awarding a live entertainment permit to Knight's
business.

During the campaign, its leader, Enelida Caron, never disclosed
Burkett's connection, nor was it reported on financial disclosure
documents. According to state law, it is illegal to use out-of-town
signature-gatherers in recall drives.

The material released Friday indicates investigators took
Buckley's allegations about the signature-gathering effort
seriously.

In one affidavit filed to obtain a judge's permission for the
search warrants, Riverside County district attorney's office Senior
Investigator Jorge Chavez states he learned of Burkett's
involvement with the recall drive, leading him to believe the
committee was failing to follow campaign requirements.

"The committee may have paid Burkett to gather voter signatures
or Burkett may have volunteered his professional time to gather
signatures," Chavez wrote. "In either instance, the committee
failed to disclose either the payment to Burkett or his in-kind
services. The committee omitted Burkett's involvement in the
campaign activities."

The new material shows Chavez suspected that one of Burkett's
signature-gatherers lived in San Bernardino, although she reported
a Lake Elsinore address.

Immediately after the Feb. 23 election in which voters decided
to keep Buckley in office, Knight filed a major-donor campaign
disclosure statement several weeks after such a declaration was
due, stating that he had spent more than $15,000 on the recall
campaign, including a $12,512 payment to Burkett in September. None
of those expenses was reported by the campaign committee.

Authorities arrested Knight, a Wine Country resident, in May.
Caron, who moved to Florida, surrendered herself in June. Both were
charged with perjury, forgery and conspiring to mask Knight's
backing of the campaign by failing to file required campaign
documents or filing misleading documents. Both are free after
posting bond on bail.

In addition to the district attorney's inquiry, the state Fair
Political Practices Commission has an ongoing investigation into
the campaign's financing, although a spokesman said the enforcement
division would not release anything publicly until the criminal
case is closed.

Burkett has not been charged with wrongdoing. He would not have
been required to file any disclosure documents because he was being
paid to do the work.

His home in Wildomar was among the places searched by district
attorneys' investigators in the first week of February. They also
searched Caron's home in Lake Elsinore, Knight's in Wine Country,
the Trevi Entertainment Center in Lake Elsinore that Knight runs
and where Caron was employed during the campaign.